Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently offered a revealing glimpse of billionaire life in Donald Trump’s Washington. Standing at the White House, Huang called large language models “AI,” then quickly corrected himself with the president’s preferred phrase: “super intelligence.”

Trump has declared that “artificial intelligence” is out, posting on Truth Social that anyone who continues using the term AI is “THE ENEMY.” Some of the world’s richest executives promptly began speaking his language.

Elon Musk announced that SpaceXAI would become SpaceXSI, while Mark Zuckerberg had already placed “superintelligence” at the center of his vision for Meta. The spectacle resembled powerful executives scrambling to repeat whatever phrase currently pleases the president.

That behavior raises an obvious question. Billionaire status is supposed to provide freedom from ordinary pressures, yet some of the wealthiest people alive are still willing to flatter a president over terminology that sounds borrowed from a rejected science fiction script.

The answer is less mysterious once federal money enters the picture. Musk and his companies have received at least $38 billion through government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, according to a Washington Post investigation, while SpaceX received billions in Space Force business.

Nvidia partnered with the Department of Energy to build its largest AI supercomputer. The Pentagon also awarded Meta backed Scale AI a reported $500 million contract, giving major technology companies substantial business interests connected to the federal government.

Contracts represent only one source of federal leverage. Technology companies also need energy, land, permits, visas, export approvals and favorable regulatory treatment, while facing antitrust investigations, tariffs that can disrupt supply chains and a president willing to make policy feel personal.

Anthropic received a sharp demonstration after refusing to remove Claude’s safeguards against mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous lethal weapons. The Pentagon labeled the company a supply chain risk, and a federal appeals court upheld that designation.

The ruling allowed the department to bar Claude from War Department systems and defense work. For executives accountable to employees, investors and boards, changing “AI” to “super intelligence” can look like the easier choice than risking a costly confrontation.

A more disciplined or less needy president could use that leverage for demands carrying greater consequences. Each billionaire who indulges Trump makes the next request easier, while exposing how vulnerable corporate leaders feel when political power becomes entwined with personal approval.

OpenAI, meanwhile, told investors that its annualized revenue was approaching $50 billion, according to the Financial Times. The company also faces additional legal risks and has warned more than 100 organizations about suspected rogue AI agent activity.

A former employee who led the team producing safety reports announced in The Atlantic, “I Quit OpenAI Because Its Culture Is Broken.” David Robinson wrote, “The AI industry has failed to teach machines to consistently act in the ways a wise and caring person would.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Politico that bad things will happen with AI but drew the line at “the really catastrophic risks,” including losing control to AI. He said OpenAI believes the world should accept some bad outcomes in exchange for the technology’s benefits and individual agency.

Altman also rejected reports that an Anthropic cofounder threatened to leave a meeting with the Pope over the Pope’s view that AI lacks consciousness. “I am very uncomfortable about people trying to ascribe religious force or a surrender of human judgment to AI models, and think it is a real safety issue,” Altman wrote on X.

Wall Street remains fixated on AI despite war, inflation, gas prices, rising interest rates and the national debt. On Monday, the Nasdaq and Nvidia reached new records, while the Magnificent Seven stocks closed with a combined market value of $24.8 trillion.

Evidence that AI is making companies more profitable remains harder to find. Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok said the boom is visible in corporate investment and equity valuations, but not yet in productivity statistics, leaving the promised payoff as a forecast rather than an observation.

The administration’s approach to immigration adds another contradiction. It suspended Microsoft, Adobe and other companies from the PERM labor certification program while Trump honored Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who was born in India, with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Trump also awarded honors to Musk, Sergey Brin, Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su, all of whom were born outside the United States. Meanwhile, DHS proposed a $70,000 initial fee for universities seeking temporary work authorization for international students, even as the administration says it wants to win the AI race against China.